Former Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin had his turn to give his side of the story about why he wasn’t allowed to coach the Rebels in the College Football Playoff.
“My request to do so was denied by Keith Carter despite the team also asking him to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance. Unfortunately, that means Friday’s Egg Bowl was my last game coaching the Rebels.”
Kiffin’s also made comments about only finding out he wouldn’t be allowed to coach Ole Miss in the playoffs last week.
Now, Ole Miss players and athletics director Keith Carter are pushing back on several points. Most notably, players are disputing Kiffin’s claim they wanted him to stay with the team in the CFP.
“I think everyone that was in that room would disagree,” center Brycen Sanders said in a social media post about Kiffin’s claim about the players wanting him to stay.
"Despite the team asking me to keep coaching". I think everyone that was in that room would disagree https://t.co/p4g4qDR9XF
— Brycen Sanders (@BrycenSanders1) December 3, 2025
“That was not the message you said in the meeting room,” linebacker Suntarine Perkins said in his own social media post. “Everybody that was in there can vouch on this.”
That was not the message you said in the meeting room. Everybody that was in there can vouch on this . https://t.co/tssQmvGgQ3
— suntarine perkins (@suntarine) December 3, 2025
“This was not said from anyone,” PJ Wilkins said in a social media post.
Fax this was not said from anyone‼️ https://t.co/NryoqTHE2i
— Paris Wilkins (@PjWilkins4) December 3, 2025
Furthermore, Carter is making the rounds and was asked about Kiffin’s claim that he didn’t find out until late Saturday or early Sunday that he wouldn’t be allowed to coach the team.
“There’s been a lot of things he said publicly that I’m not sure are totally accurate,” Carter said in an interview on SuperTalk Mississippi. “I think that that both coach and his representation knew several weeks ago that coaching in the playoffs was not going to be an option if he was not the Ole Miss head coach. That’s not accurate.”
As for Kiffin’s claim that the players wanted him to stay with the team, Carter said he’ll let the players handle that.
“I don’t want to breach some of the confidentiality of those guys…I’ll let them kind of tweet out what they want to tweet out and give information that they want to give. But I don’t think the way he portrayed that meeting was accurate.
“There was there was a lot of pushback to him leaving and it was really one of those things where you know these guys knew they needed coaches to coach the game. And it was sounding like he was going to take all the offensive staff with him if he didn’t coach in the game. So, there’s a lot of discussion around that but I think begging for him to stay is certainly an overstatement. I think our players are starting to show what really happened in that meeting.”
